garden news-can your own water

GARDEN NEWS-CAN YOUR WATER

in the early part of the 1900s an earthquake hit santa barbara real hard
it destroyed lots of buildings in the city
the city used that opportunity to start over and developed strict building rules for how they would look
thus the adobe look and those california tile roofs can be seen on most buildings

we still get occasional earthquakes here but not bad ones
hopefully that doesnt happen

if it does they recommend you have an earthquake box of supplies ready in case you have to go without food or water or electricity for awhile

my wife she got a package of those plastic water bottle that has i think 24 of them in a package sitting in our garage
they are good for about 1 year then the plastic in the bottles starts to degrade and makes the water less safe to drink overtime

last year in texas the cold spell that knocked out water and electricity left thousands without water
it looks like that may happen again today in that area

at the country n we had rainwater collected in large tanks and we had well water
when the electricity went out we couldnt get rainwater or well water to be pumped into our house

however
the rainwater tanks were about 8 ft high so we could get water to flow by gravity into our sink and bathroom on the first floor
so we could access water but we had to boil it to drink or cook with it
we also could go to one of those tall tanks and get water to drain via gravity out of the hose
i took several showers that way when the electricity went out

in rural areas the electricity always seems to be getting knocked out
thus limiting the water access 

years ago the water ships hauled use to get all moldy and slimey and would almost become undrinkable
so
they poured alcohol in it to kill the germs
that made for a happy crew to drink a lot of water

in austin the owner of the tank town one of the gods of rainwater collection in central texas got the idea of collecting rainwater and bottling it for sale
its an interesting story 
you can actually buy his bottled rainwater which comes in cans or glass bottles
see his website for locations to buy it
when we lived there he also sold it in plastic bottles 
usually whole foods had it for sale

this morning i saw this interesting article from a homesteader on how to can your water so it will remain potable in those kerr quart jars for months and years
no worrying about that plastic eroding into the water over months of just sitting around

now im not a canning person
ive only canned refrigerator pickles not the truly canned pickles

if you pour water into a jar
put a lid on it
let it sit
it may get moldy and slimey
so eventually it wont be potable water
ie
it will be unsafe to drink

if you though adequately can it like you would veggies then the water will be safe for a long long time

that will be a much safer way to store water for emergency use
using those canning jars and one of those canning methods described in the homesteaders blog
 
if someone asks 
are you canning anything this year
yes
im putting up a mess of h2o ie water

the organicgreen doctor